startup success tips

The entrepreneur community has been buzzing with the story of Yahoo acquiring Tumblr.

The Internet giant purchased the site founder David Karp launched from his mother’s Manhattan apartment for $1.1 billion. At only 26-years-old, Karp is expected to receive up to $220 million from the deal.  Though he eventually took venture funding, Karp launched his hugely successful social blogging platform from a simple idea.

His story is an inspiration to others seeking to start the next big thing. Here are 10 tips from the business blogging community for creating the next big startup success story, from a simple idea:

Start with a great product. - Erica.Biz

Twitter and similar Silicon Valley startups gained momentum with support from the so-called “digerati.” However, you don’t need the support of top tech bloggers or trend setters to launch a great startup. All you need is a really great product or service and a customer base that loves it. Blogger Erica Douglass gives us a look at the “Macklemore Effect” and how it can rocket your startup to success.

Pick the right startup name. - Entrepreneur

Picking the right name for your startup is also important. Gary Backaus and Justin Dobbs of Memphis-based ad agency Archer>Malmo gave a presentation earlier this year at the South By Southwest Interactive Conference. The presentation looked at how to pick the best name for your startup. Here are their five best suggestions for picking a business name that will take you from startup to success.

Pay attention to your business plan- SBA.gov

Entrepreneurs may differ on the importance of a business plan or on what form it should take. But a good business plan is key to startup success. Here are five fundamental principals of good business planning from business planning expert and startup founder Tim Berry. Look at Berry’s suggestions as a best practices list to aspire to when creating the business plan for your startup.

Make sure the price is right. - Startup Professionals Musings

Investor and blogger Martin Zwilling gives us an overview of the kinds of pricing decisions startups must make. These are not simply decisions about how to price a product or service competitively. They are also decisions about the kind of pricing model, for example, free product or service monetized by ads, freemium service et cetera.

Change your approach to recruiting- The Verge

Startups have been evolving their approach to recruiting for quite some time. Plain old want-ads were replaced by  online job boards and replaced by recruitment via LinkedIn. Now there’s yet another way to hire workers. TaskRabbit, a site dedicated to contractors, is moving toward offering more long-term work.

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